There But For The Grace Of God

B

bybee

New member
go I.
When I see homeless people I pray for them and I pray for me.
I have five children. Two of them are addicts. I pray for them and I pray for me because the line between addiction and self control is so fine.
I have been very poor. For many years we lived on a budget that had pennies left on the day before pay day.
We had our share of catastrophes and setbacks. And always when all was bleak a helping hand would appear. Sometimes the help came from within, a much needed attitude adjustment changed the whole scene! Sometimes the help came unexpectedly and from totally unexpected persons.
I believe in paying it forward and second chances.
I'm not sure I can continue with "Truth Smacking". I do not like to hurt people. There is also a fine line between enabling and requiring people to stand on their own two feet. I'm still working on knowing where it is.
My Dad had been homeless as a youth. He became quite successful but never forgot being hungry and being homeless. He always gave money to panhandlers. He said "There by the grace of God and my own grit I no longer am!"
And I always give money to panhandlers. It won't make them and it won 't break me. It might ease their burden for the moment.
I forgive almost everything except deliberate cruelty.
 
chrysostom

chrysostom

Well-known member
Hall of Fame
I have always hated that saying

sooner or later
you are what you are because of what you did or didn't do
we were all given talents
maybe just one
but
we will be held accountable
if
we don't use it properly


it is all right there in your bible


30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
 
B

bybee

New member
chrysostom said:
I have always hated that saying

sooner or later
you are what you are because of what you did or didn't do
we were all given talents
maybe just one
but
we will be held accountable
if
we don't use it properly


it is all right there in your bible


30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Click to expand...

And what if one's talent is to nurture?
Why did Jesus die on the cross if not to provide forgiveness to sinners?
 
musterion

musterion

Well-known member
bybee said:
go I.
When I see homeless people I pray for them and I pray for me.
I have five children. Two of them are addicts. I pray for them and I pray for me because the line between addiction and self control is so fine.
I have been very poor. For many years we lived on a budget that had pennies left on the day before pay day.
We had our share of catastrophes and setbacks. And always when all was bleak a helping hand would appear. Sometimes the help came from within, a much needed attitude adjustment changed the whole scene! Sometimes the help came unexpectedly and from totally unexpected persons.
I believe in paying it forward and second chances.
I'm not sure I can continue with "Truth Smacking". I do not like to hurt people. There is also a fine line between enabling and requiring people to stand on their own two feet. I'm still working on knowing where it is.
My Dad had been homeless as a youth. He became quite successful but never forgot being hungry and being homeless. He always gave money to panhandlers. He said "There by the grace of God and my own grit I no longer am!"
And I always give money to panhandlers. It won't make them and it won 't break me. It might ease their burden for the moment.
I forgive almost everything except deliberate cruelty.
Click to expand...

I take issue with nothing you've said. My family experience growing up was similar at times. I ask only this: who is more deliberately cruel...those preaching false gospels, or those who have the Truth but allow the false to be preached unopposed for the sake of getting along?

This isn't aimed at you, btw. It's a general but very timely question.
 
B

bybee

New member
musterion said:
I take issue with nothing you've said. My family experience growing up was similar at times. I ask only this: who is more deliberately cruel...those preaching false gospels, or those who have the Truth but allow the false to be preached unopposed for the sake of getting along?

This isn't aimed at you, btw. It's a general but very timely question.
Click to expand...

I absolutely agree with you. The questions are valid. We must stand up and be counted for the truths of our Christian beliefs.
I guess it would be in the logistics we use to make our stands that I sometimes find so harsh that I wonder just how helpful we are?
I would like to be helpful to witness to that wondrous miracle on the cross. Jesus dying on the cross offered absolution and forgiveness to one of the other sufferers on a cross.
I do not turn the other cheek to that which is deliberately vile or evil.
But I remind myself that it is behavior that i judge and not the person.
 
patrick jane

patrick jane

BANNED
Banned
bybee said:
go I.
When I see homeless people I pray for them and I pray for me.
I have five children. Two of them are addicts. I pray for them and I pray for me because the line between addiction and self control is so fine.
I have been very poor. For many years we lived on a budget that had pennies left on the day before pay day.
We had our share of catastrophes and setbacks. And always when all was bleak a helping hand would appear. Sometimes the help came from within, a much needed attitude adjustment changed the whole scene! Sometimes the help came unexpectedly and from totally unexpected persons.
I believe in paying it forward and second chances.
I'm not sure I can continue with "Truth Smacking". I do not like to hurt people. There is also a fine line between enabling and requiring people to stand on their own two feet. I'm still working on knowing where it is.
My Dad had been homeless as a youth. He became quite successful but never forgot being hungry and being homeless. He always gave money to panhandlers. He said "There by the grace of God and my own grit I no longer am!"
And I always give money to panhandlers. It won't make them and it won 't break me. It might ease their burden for the moment.
I forgive almost everything except deliberate cruelty.
Click to expand...

You sound like a strong Christian lady wanting to do God's Will. I give to beggars also, I always know what they are going through. As far as the cruelty I understand, and the truthsmacking here is far from the truth. Nobody seems to have inerest in the truth or knowing and acknowledging the person as a person; too busy taking pot shots. Your Dad sounds like a great guy.
 
PureX

PureX

Well-known member
bybee said:
go I.
When I see homeless people I pray for them and I pray for me.
I have five children. Two of them are addicts. I pray for them and I pray for me because the line between addiction and self control is so fine.
I have been very poor. For many years we lived on a budget that had pennies left on the day before pay day.
We had our share of catastrophes and setbacks. And always when all was bleak a helping hand would appear. Sometimes the help came from within, a much needed attitude adjustment changed the whole scene! Sometimes the help came unexpectedly and from totally unexpected persons.
I believe in paying it forward and second chances.
I'm not sure I can continue with "Truth Smacking". I do not like to hurt people. There is also a fine line between enabling and requiring people to stand on their own two feet. I'm still working on knowing where it is.
My Dad had been homeless as a youth. He became quite successful but never forgot being hungry and being homeless. He always gave money to panhandlers. He said "There by the grace of God and my own grit I no longer am!"
And I always give money to panhandlers. It won't make them and it won 't break me. It might ease their burden for the moment.
I forgive almost everything except deliberate cruelty.
Click to expand...
Wow! Excellent post!
bybee said:
There is also a fine line between enabling and requiring people to stand on their own two feet. I'm still working on knowing where it is.
Click to expand...
When I was living in Chicago, the street people asked me for money all the time. Every day, often many times a day. And I had barely enough money to take care of myself. Yet I'd also been a drunk for many years, so I understood their plight better than most, I suppose, from my own first-hand experience.

I puzzled over what to do about them for along time. Should I give them money knowing they will get high with it? Do I buy them food that they don't want, instead? Do I ignore them? Do I preach to them?

In the end I realized that I was trying to control them when they couldn't even control themselves. And that was stupid. I was also trying to "divine their future" and determine how giving them a dollar would effect them. And this was also stupid.

So finally I realized I was struggling with nothing more than my own ego, in thinking that my actions would have some profound effect on them, when they would forget me the instant I walked away, whether I gave them a dollar or not.

So I quit worrying about it, and I gave them money sometimes, and sometimes not. Depending on my own situation, and my own whim. And I let the results be God's worry, not mine.

There were many days in my past when all I wanted was a drink. A drink to relieve me of myself. And even though each drink only made things in my life worse in the long run, they made things better in the moment. And I had to drink exactly as many drinks as I did, to get to the last one.

So I no longer begrudge the drunk his drink. Or the junkie his high. And I'll help them get both with a dollar here or there, if that's what they think they need. Or I won't, if it puts me in a tight spot. And then I trust them and myself, both, to God. And I pray they will get that last drink, or high, someday soon. And in the meantime, I'll help them to ease their suffering, even if it means they'll drink or take drugs with my dollar.

Giving means giving, not buying someone else's thoughts or behavior. I give when I can, without strings. And I don't feel guilty when I can't. Because I need to trust in the grace of God as much as they do.
 
chrysostom

chrysostom

Well-known member
Hall of Fame
PureX said:
Giving means giving, not buying someone else's thoughts or behavior. I give when I can, without strings. And I don't feel guilty when I can't. Because I need to trust in the grace as much as they do.
Click to expand...

I do give most of the time when asked

never regretted it
 
B

bybee

New member
PureX said:
Wow! Excellent post!
When I was living in Chicago, the street people asked me for money all the time. Every day, often many times a day. And I had barely enough money to take care of myself. Yet I'd also been a drunk for many years, so I understood their plight better than most, I suppose, from my own first-hand experience.

I puzzled over what to do about them for along time. Should I give them money knowing they will get high with it? Do I buy them food that they don't want, instead? Do I ignore them? Do I preach to them?

In the end I realized that I was trying to control them when they couldn't even control themselves. And that was stupid. I was also trying to "divine their future" and determine how giving them a dollar would effect them. And this was also stupid.

So finally I realized I was struggling with nothing more than my own ego, in thinking that my actions would have some profound effect on them, when they would forget me the instant I walked away, whether I gave them a dollar or not.

So I quit worrying about it, and I gave them money sometimes, and sometimes not. Depending on my own situation, and my own whim. And I let the results be God's worry, not mine.

There were many days in my past when all I wanted was a drink. A drink to relieve me of myself. And even though each drink only made things in my life worse in the long run, they made things better in the moment. And I had to drink exactly as many drinks as I did, to get to the last one.

So I no longer begrudge the drunk his drink. Or the junkie his high. And I'll help them get both with a dollar here or there, if that's what they think they need. Or I won't, if it puts me in a tight spot. And then I trust them and myself, both, to God. And I pray they will get that last drink, or high, someday soon. And in the meantime, I'll help them to ease their suffering, even if it means they'll drink or take drugs with my dollar.

Giving means giving, not buying someone else's thoughts or behavior. I give when I can, without strings. And I don't feel guilty when I can't. Because I need to trust in the grace of God as much as they do.
Click to expand...

Amen Brother!
 
musterion

musterion

Well-known member
chrysostom said:
every time you say

there but for the grace of God go I

you are saying

someone didn't get enough grace
Click to expand...

Liar. You know she is not saying that and does not believe it.

They chose (or are choosing) not to avail themselves to the grace they have received, and serve as examples of what happens when one does not. Much like yourself.
 
chrysostom

chrysostom

Well-known member
Hall of Fame
musterion said:
Liar. You know she is not saying that and does not believe it.

They chose (or are choosing) not to avail themselves to the grace they have received.
Click to expand...

is that name calling without cause
or
is that name calling by someone who is allowed to do it
 
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